Ride Or Die (Hell's Tribe MC Series) [Book 5]

Chapter 24: Dead Man Walking

Early update just because I love you all so very much! Happy Easter to those who celebrate and happy reading to all!

~Bucky~

Going to work the next morning without seeing Carter was strange. I had gotten so used to seeing her vixen red lips curl up into a sly smile when I walked in that coming into just Dean, Jessie, and Cooper was rather disappointing. Carter had a very good reason for her absence, but I couldn't help but miss her and it had only been a day. I hadn't gotten the chance to see her before she and Cash had left for Florida, but had I had the opportunity there was no doubt I would have somehow snuck one last kiss before she got on that plane.

It felt different without her here—like something was missing. Even though I had worked at Hell's Ink for almost two years without her, it just didn't feel right now that she was gone. Even the guys were acting weird when I came in, each of their heads snapping up the second I walked through the door, almost as if they were waiting for me or something. They were all standing in a semi-circle, seeming to be in the middle of a conversation before I arrived. As I shut the front door behind me, they all fell silent, their gaze flickering toward me.

"Morning, fuckers," I greeted.

"Hey, Buck," Cooper said, his voice rising to an awkwardly high octave.

Jessie and Dean both shot him a weird look, almost as if he had done something wrong. I narrowed my eyes in confusion, ignoring their strange behaviour as I headed straight for the kitchen to make myself a coffee.

That was weird.

Considering the way they looked like a bunch of gossiping school girls when I walked in, and now with Cooper's voice cracking like he was in middle school, I'd say it was pretty safe to assume that something fishy was going on in here. I wasn't sure what, but it was definitely something.

I tried to ignore it for the rest of the day, but more things kept happening that solidified the fact that they were definitely acting weird as fuck.

Jessie had started it off by asking if I had "Banged any hot chicks lately" completely out of the blue. For one, this was weird because Jessie, out of all three of them would be the least likely to ask me that. He was quite literally the dad of the group and was never one to enjoy a raunchy hookup story. This went on for the rest of the morning and I didn't miss the way Cooper attempted to peek at my phone screen while we were outside for a smoke break and I was texting Ricky. To top it off, all three of them locked eyes and made a weird face when I turned down my afternoon client when she offered me her number.

They were watching me like hawks and it was getting a little bit strange.

Even on my lunch break, Dean came to sit with me in the kitchen almost as if to keep an eye on me.

"Alright," I began, suddenly feeling like I'd had enough. "What's up?" I asked.

Dean's arms tensed, his whole body growing rigid at my question.

"Wh-what do you mean?" he stuttered.

"Is there cash missing from the till or something? You're all being weird as fuck."

Dean shook his head. "Nothings missing," he confirmed.

"Then what is it?" I asked, throwing my hands up in the air.

Unless I was about to be fired, I couldn't think of why they were being so weird.

Dean let out a breath, standing to his feet. "All I'm gonna say is if you're doing something you shouldn't be, you should stop."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

Dean shrugged, walking out of the kitchen as he spoke. "You figure it out."